"The airline business in crisis - an Agenda for recovery". What might have been - a memory from 2003

Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Dr Cheong Choong Kong, or CK or Doc Cheong as he was usually called, headed Singapore Airlines from 1996 until 2003. He was one of the few Asian airline giants to have emerged in the era of dominance by the full service flag carriers. His doctorate in mathematics was followed by important research in the area, appropriately, of random processes and applied and theoretical probability.

In 1998, Fortune magazine named him Asian Businessman of the Year, recording the fact that SIA had an "unbroken 27-year record of profitability through turbulent economic times." Singapore Airlines was one of the sixth freedom airlines that perfected the art of disruption in the latter part of the 20th century - to fierce opposition from most of the incumbent flag carriers.

Just before he retired from the airline business, CK Cheong made a farewell plea at the Jun-2003 Washington IATA AGM. As another annual IATA gathering rolls around, back in the US again, he could well - with a few minor adjustments - make the same presentation. This time however he would be considerably less optimstic about US liberalisation than he was 12 years ago. In arguing the case for liberalisation, Dr Cheong's 2003 presentation noted, with hope, that "that the US Government may relax its ownership restrictions to allow foreign investment of up to 49 per cent in its national airlines."